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Women who have had breast cancer gain no benefit from taking tamoxifen for longer than five years, a new study has found.

The researchers randomly assigned 1172 women who had already taken tamoxifen for five years to continue taking either the drug or a placebo. For seven years after randomisation, a slight advantage was observed in women who discontinued tamoxifen compared with those who continued to receive it (disease-free survival 82% v 78%; P=0.03, …